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Sacred Reviews: 2P Block Puzzle

Introduction

2 Player Block Puzzle was developed by Turbo852 as an entry for the Golden Week of RPG Maker 2003 event. Strangely enough this puzzle game feels rather unique in comparison to most of the other entries in the contest since it isn't a RPG. Though, sadly at the time of the writing of this review the game suffers from an eventing error and is thus unbeatable.

Story

I'm honestly not sure what the story of this game is. The opening cut scene goes by so quickly and flashes so many boxes of text you'll be lucky to catch any of it much less all of it. As such this game almost feels like it doesn't have a setup beyond an idiotic couple getting trapped inside of a cave and needing to work in tandem to escape.

Gameplay

On the gameplay side of things the game suffers from bad controls, and my issue isn't something as simple as needing to switch back and forth between the arrow keys and the number pad in order to control both characters. I'm not so shallow as to perceive that need as a problem since the game was clearly intended for two players working in concert with each other. My issues with the controls start with the action button for the female character. The shift key is often times rather finicky when it comes to pushing boulders and I'll often find myself tapping away on the shift key anywhere from two times to half a dozen times to move a boulder a single square. Another issue that pops up every now and again is that I'll lose control of the male character and he'll make a beeline for the bottom of the screen or I'll be unable to move upwards on the puzzle without having to wiggle the male character to the left and the right a few times.

Outside of the control issues I find myself questioning why the game features combat. The monsters in this game tend to give as good as they get if not out perform your characters in combat. This can make engaging the various enemies running around a risky and frustrating affair. Sadly, seeing as how the current build crashes all of the time I'm not sure if it is a good idea to try and avoid combat altogether or if engaging every enemy you come across is a necessity to beat the game's final boss. Or at least I'm assuming the game has a final boss based on the following comment by the developer.

author=Turbo852
I deleted an event to clean up the final boss map since it wasn't needed.


Outside of those issues the game seems like a solid little block puzzle game.

Graphics & Sound

Seeing as this game is an entry in the Golden Week of RPG Maker 2003 event the game relies on the RTP for its graphics and sounds and doesn't really stand out because of it. Outside of the standard look and feel of the game though are a pair of graphical mistakes. The first of those mistakes your likely to encounter is that when you engage an enemy in combat your character and the enemy will appear on a background image that shows the fight taking place on an open plain, but the game itself takes place in a cave. The other issue you may come across is if change the order of the characters the male sprite will be replaced with the female one.

Conclusion

As mentioned previously this game suffers from an eventing error that makes finishing the game impossible. Sadly, this issue prevents me from rendering a proper verdict on this game since I haven't experienced everything it has to offer, but based on my experiences so far with the controls and everything; I'd say this game is best avoided by anyone that doesn't have a deep love for puzzle games.

Posts

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Given the initial form of the game, this review is entirely fair.

Luckily, some of the errors have since been fixed and the game is now possible to complete. The initial scene has now been slowed down just a little. The battle backgrounds have been updated to match the setting. The option to change formation of the party has been removed.

While some of these can be fixed, the issue of the controls is limited by RPG Maker 2003 as an engine and perhaps my ability in efficient use of it. I'm not sure that it can process fast enough to keep up with input commands in the way that player 1's controls can. However, if there is a way, I will try to see if it can be improved. Generally, commands must be input at a slower rate for player 2 to be effective. There are several parallel process events running that check player 2's position and action and then relate them to position of another actor to see if something should happen.

The other aspect of the controls is the limited selection of keys available for input and their layout on the keyboard. Unfortunately, several of the keys have multiple functions. This is not by design of the game, but seems to be the way that the engine handles the keys. The number pad doubles up some numbers as arrow keys. This unfortunately leads to the number 2 doubling as a down arrow and as the number 2. Interestingly enough, pressing 2 on the number row does not suffer from this doubling of function. Only the numpad "2" doubles as down. Currently, the period key "." also functions as down for player 2 to give an alternative to pressing the "2" key on the numpad which will result in moving player 1 down as well. I experimented with numlock and scroll lock, but unfortunately these features of Windows do not seem to remove the doubling of the keys as both numbers and arrows simultaneously.

I am debating updating the controls to have a choice between a numpad recommended setup and a number row recommended setup. The numpad setup would not include the 2 key as a control and would only use the period key to move player 2 down. The number row setup would likely use keys 1-4 for direction and 5 or another number for pushing the block. Another issue that may potentially come up for players is the shift key pressed rapidly may trigger Windows to prompt for sticky keys. Currently, it is best to not spam the shift key to avoid this, but I may update the controls to use a number instead of the shift key to push the blocks.

Unfortunately, to address the issue of control responsiveness will prove difficult as the speed of the processing for key input may just not be fast enough. I will have to do some more testing and some research to see what is possible and if it can be made more efficient.
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